Rehwinkel (1978) while Elser and McFarland (1977) collected 

 information on the Tongue River prior to 1978. A large portion of 

 the data on both tributaries since that time has been collected by 

 Al Elser (Fisheries Manager, Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and 

 Parks) . Sampling in the tributaries followed methods closely 

 described above with the exceptions that electrof ishing in the 

 Powder River prior to 1979 was accomplished with a small boat and 

 hand held electrode (Rehwinkel 1978) . Electrof ishing in the Tongue 

 River prior to this date was accomplished with a 110 v boom shocker 

 (Elser and McFarland 1977) . Sampling thereafter in both 

 tributaries was achieved with a 22 v boom shocker as described 

 above. The sample site in the Powder extended from its mouth to 

 1.4 km upstream. Abundance of sauger was monitored in the lower 6 

 km of the Tongue River. 



Suspected spawning sites were sampled for eggs with an egg 

 net; 51 cm square, 12.7 cm deep, and angled at the base (Priegel 

 1969, Graham et al. 1979). Standard kick samples were taken using 

 the following method: one person held the net on the bottom while 

 another kicked and swept his feet along the bottom moving toward 

 the net from a distance of approximately 4.6m upstream. Maximum 

 depths at which samples could be taken was 0.9-1.1 m depending on 

 velocity. Velocity, depths, and substrate particle size was 

 recorded at each sample site. To identify the eggs according to 



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